ChrisGabriel
Pulsar
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2010
- Location
- Europe
Nobody knew when or who made it, but its use became quite apparent. It was the entrance and exit of the plane of dead, the meeting point of the Prime Material Plane, and something that was not among the Outer Planes. The big, nine yard tall double door from the same sheet of gray rock that surrounded it was carved with symbols and both sometimes painted, and covered with items that symbolized the worship.
An upright skeletal arm holding balanced scales in front of the same sized black jackal headed humanoid seemed to be displayed prominently, with skulls under the scale, surrounding the arm. There is a skull surrounded by a ring of blood droplets - followers making sure that it was always bloodied enough. Another skull biting a scroll, a third one white and as real as it comes from a deceased human. A woman's skull, or more like half rotted skull, because she could have been good looking once, but now half rotten from some kind of disease or poison, maybe etched by acid...
Then there are the symbols of office under the jackal headed humanoid. Nine-tailed barbed scourge, a black star on the gray background, a black disk with a border, a circle divided diagonally into white and black semicircles, three teardrops surrounded by a triangle. A black ram, a coiled cobra, and horns around a lunar disk fills the left over main space on the doors.
The five yard in front of the doors left empty, but there are sellers of devotional articles on both sides hugging the rock wall, and basically a bazaar of items that could be used for lawfully put dead to the rest. With a little extra knowledge and silver, maybe even some less lawful items can be gathered too, for components, scrolls, inks, and all the mystical objects and textes that converges to the place.
But why would one make the long way to visit? The excitement of the evil worshippers swarming the place is not that welcoming to most people. Still, it is rumored that if one wentured inside the periodically opened door, one could meet with the dead. Not only meet, but fight, speak, and hold meaningfulconversations with people, and occasionalmonsters who are no longer among the living. Of course, getting the door closed on a living person is a death sentence. But the opposite is true, if one can find the way and the right dead inside, they can try to leave with him or her, greatly helping any resurrection or basically just raise that dead.
The place is ruled by the Knights of the Eternal Order, but mostly just to show a force of armored faith by the couple of paladins and doomguides, because there are a lot of monks who would fight - and fight each other too - if needed. The sorcerer monks and the disciples of the white rod the two most obvious, but if one looked the right way, there are a lot of undertakers visiting, both part of the Most Solemn Order of the Silent Shroud, and not. Embalmers, caratakers, or just family of the recently or long dead, the congregation is mostly human, and mostly male, but there is enough femalesand humanoids to not make it more than a couple of long glances and cursory interest.
While there are mostly scribes, funerary workers, and morticians among the crowd, at least one full sized grey dragon could be seen flying around and making its nest atop the mound of grey stone that houses the known door.
But for our curious travellers there is a hidden shop among the less death oriented ones, where the congregating people go for their food, drink, and merriment, including the exchange of far away places wares. There is a small colorful tent, where they sell barely used clothes, where a small door lies behind a carpet. The propreitor of the shop is an old male gnome, who tries to find the right people among the death worshippers and visitors to accompany his daughter inside the appropriately sized small doorway, that stands open as long as the big double door is open , and snaps closed, when it is time to have the Death's Door to open on the other face of the rock.
The gnome man calls himself Lerik, and tries to smile, but either the place or something ails him, making him morous if he is not speaking about his daughter and the need for some good people - namely the players - to help her. Lerik does not says what she needs help with, he only shows a medalion with pictures of his deceased wife and the little lost daughter. The pictures was made the same time by the same artist, and all Lerik say is that "That was a nice year..."
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